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Bridget Faulkenberry, director of the Lubbock Department of Health, said the department is compiling its budget as normal, not assuming there will be a city-county Health Department some day.

Bridget Faulkenberry, director of the Lubbock Department of Health, said the department is compiling its budget as normal, not assuming there will be a city-county Health Department some day.

At Friday’s Board of Health meeting in the Health Department building, Dr. Steve Presley, board chairman, said his committee regarding a city-county Health Department had its first meeting.

He said the committee’s primary objective is to investigate financial feasibility of combining the two health departments.

Even if the committee, comprised of city and county representatives and health care professionals, determines the two departments wish to operate together, the city and the county each must approve an agreement to develop the project, Presley said.

The committee hopes to have an answer ready in the next few meetings, Presley said.

Meanwhile, the Lubbock Health Department is beginning to put together its 2012-13 operating budget without any assumptions of a joint city-county venture, Faulkenberry said.

She said the department will compile its operating budget and will probably submit it in March.

“We will get direction from the chief financial officer on whether we need to increase our budget or if it needs to stay zero level,” she said, adding she would probably get that information sometime in February.

Faulkenberry said May is the deadline for budget requests, but there is no deadline for the committee to give a report.

Presley added he does not anticipate the county taking longer than May to decide if it wants to join forces with the city Health Department.

“This is a long process. We weren’t tasked to build the boat, we were just tasked to determine if it is a boat,” Presley said.

From there, the city’s Finance Department will go over the budget — just as it does with all of the department budgets — and then submit a thorough review to the City Council to be voted on in September, Faulkenberry said.

Wes Everett, director of Facilities Management, told the board the city is exploring options to move operations from the Health Department’s building to different places.

Everett said operating the building costs about $120,000 per year, including costs such as maintenance and utilities.

The building, built in the 1950s, is not going to last much longer without having some expensive problem occurring, Everett estimated.